iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Lead Guitarist

This articlearticle or section has multiple issues:
* It may contain original research or unverifiable claims.
* It does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by citing reliable sources.
* Its tone or style may not be appropriate for Wikipedia.
Please help [ improve the article] or discuss these issues on the talk page.


Lead guitar refers to a role within a band, that provides melody or melodic material, as opposed to the rhythm of the rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. Lead guitar is commonly used in blues, jazz and rock music. The lead guitarist is also normally the guitarist who will play the guitar solo in a song, provided that the song contains one.

Overview

A lead guitarist's role involves playing solos, riffs and fills. Technical difficulties involve playing at the same tempo as the rest of the band and playing in the same key (music) as the rest as the band (this will prevent unwanted dissonance).

Technique

Guitarists use scales, musical modes and arpeggios depending on what kind of music they are playing, for example, a Pentatonic scale or a blues scale are commonly used in blues guitar, a dorian mode may be used by a Jazz guitarist and a natural minor scale may be used by a heavy metal guitarist.

Syncopation is used to make solos more varied, for example metal employs speed-enhancing picking (right hand) techniques such as alternate picking, sweep picking, economy picking and left handed techniques hammer on, pull off, tapping, are used to maximize the speed of their solos or riffs. Blues guitarists use call and response style riffs-these are created by the guitarist playing a musical phrase and then the phrase is repeated with the final note of the phrase altered.

Other techniques that are universal to all guitarists include string bending, vibrato and slides.

Heavy metal lead guitar

The main basis of lead guitar is speed. but is also based heavily on melody. As with any style of guitar a certain amount of guitar knowledge is needed, such as scales, proper picking technique, Legato, etc.

Many modern guitarists in metal and rock have included mainly influences from older styles of music such as baroque, and some instances from the romantic period of "classical" music. For example bands such as Children of Bodom and Nevermore are heavily influenced by this style of guitar playing, using such styles as economy picking better known as "sweep picking" which is running through an arpeggio across 5 or 6 strings at high speeds.

Other styles in the metal genre would be the better know style of Kirk Hammett of Metallica, with fast hammer-ons and pull offs with melody hidden underneath.

In metal music the lead guitar takes a large aspect in the music and usually has a section between 16 and 32 bars of solo in each song.

Blues lead guitar

The pentatonic scale is central to the blues, in addition to the pentatonic scale other musical scale degrees may be added, for example, a blues guitarists may mix the major (music) pentatonic scale and the minor pentatonic scale together, this is practised by BB King. Some Blues players choose to play using a slide (guitar), in order to do this the pentatonic scale must be extended 8 frets (for more information please refer to slide guitar.

Blues music often involves musical improvisation, whilst the rhythm section plays, the lead guitarist can begin to improvise using many techniques including:- a phrase (music), call and response (music) or riffs in addition to guitar techniques such as slur (music)s using hammer on/pull off (popularly used by Buddy Guy) and using vibrato on a bend (guitar).

Effects

A common obstacle that a guitarist may face is keeping sustain in the pieces that they play guitarist using an electric guitar can create more sustain by choosing the right guitar- certain guitars have pickup (music), volume and tone knobs that'll increase sustain, other than the guitar itself effects pedals may be used. Distortion (guitar) can be used to greatly increase the sound however the sound itself may not be pleasant, delay (audio effect) can be used to repeat the sound after the note has been played.

However the use of effects is not entirely based upon the ability to keep sustain for example, Jimi Hendrix is famous for using wah-wah pedal to create a 'wah' sound with his guitar and other effects such as univibe to create a 'Psychedelic' sound.

See also

A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music. In each musical style or genre, different norms have developed for the sizes and composition of different ensembles, and for the repertoire of songs or musical works that these ensembles
..... Click the link for more information.
melody, also tune, voice, or line, is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord (see harmony). However, this succession must contain change of some kind and be perceived as a single entity (possibly Gestalt) to be called a
..... Click the link for more information.
Rhythm (Greek ῥυθμός = 'flow', or in Modern Greek, 'style') is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events.
..... Click the link for more information.
rhythm guitar. The rhythm guitar is commonly used to provide a rhythmic complement for the lead guitar, although the actual instruments are interchangeable, and the distinction between the two is fluid.
..... Click the link for more information.
The electric bass guitar (or "electric bass") is a bass stringed instrument played with the fingers by plucking, slapping, popping or using a pick. The bass is typically similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and scale
..... Click the link for more information.
The Drum kit

1 Bass drum | 2 Floor tom | 3 Snare | 4 Toms | 5 Hi-hat | 6 Crash cymbal and Ride cymbal
Other components
China cymbal | Cowbell | Sizzle cymbal |
Splash cymbal | Swish cymbal |
Tambourine | Wood block | Rototom
A drum kit (or
..... Click the link for more information.
Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a twelve-bar structure. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants,
..... Click the link for more information.
Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in and around New Orleans.

Overview

Jazz has been called "America's only original art form.
..... Click the link for more information.
Rock music is a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody accompanied by guitar, drums, and bass. Many styles of rock music also use keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or synthesizers.
..... Click the link for more information.
guitar solo is commonly taken to refer specifically to the rock music genre. Although solo passages for guitar are found in many musical genres, the 'guitar solo' has become characteristic part of rock music.
..... Click the link for more information.
The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four, seven, eight, ten, and twelve string guitars also exist.
..... Click the link for more information.
guitar solo is commonly taken to refer specifically to the rock music genre. Although solo passages for guitar are found in many musical genres, the 'guitar solo' has become characteristic part of rock music.
..... Click the link for more information.
In music, a riff is an ostinato figure: a repeated chord progression, pattern, refrain or melodic figure, often played by the rhythm section instruments, that forms the basis or accompaniment of a musical composition (though they are most often found in rock music, Latin, funk and
..... Click the link for more information.
In popular music, a 'fill' is a sound (or combination of sounds) which "fills" the brief time between lyrical phrases and lines of melody. From a musical arranger's perspective, a fill serves the dual purpose or sustaining the listener's attention during what would otherwise be a
..... Click the link for more information.
2,2,6,6-Tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl or TEMPO is the chemical compound with the formula (CH2)3(CMe2)2NO. This heterocycle is a red-orange, sublimable solid.
..... Click the link for more information.
In music theory, the key identifies the tonic triad, the chord, major or minor, which represents the final point of rest for a piece, or the focal point of a section. Although the key of a piece may be named in the title (e.g.
..... Click the link for more information.
Dissonance has several meanings, all related to incongruity:
  • Consonance and dissonance in music are properties of an interval or chord
  • Cognitive dissonance is a state of mental conflict.
  • Dissonance in poetry is the deliberate avoidance of assonance, i.e.

..... Click the link for more information.
guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Professional guitarists may perform solo pieces or play with ensembles and bands of a wide variety of genres. The guitar is an incredibly versatile instrument, and like the piano, it can play chords, melodies, solos, or help to gel a
..... Click the link for more information.
Scale can refer to:
  • Scale (computing). See also Scalability.
  • Scale (map)
  • Scale (ratio)
  • Scale factor
  • Scale (spatial)
  • Scale (zoology)

..... Click the link for more information.
scale is an ordered series of musical intervals, which, along with the key or tonic, define the pitches. However, mode is usually used in the sense of scale applied only to the specific diatonic scales found below.
..... Click the link for more information.
arpeggio is a broken chord where the notes are played or sung in succession rather than simultaneously. The word, like many other musical terms, originates from Italian, in which it means "in the manner of the harp.
..... Click the link for more information.
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitches per octave as compared to the major scale which is made up of seven distinct notes. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world, including but not limited to Celtic folk music, African-American
..... Click the link for more information.
A hexatonic scale is a musical scale with six pitches or notes per octave. Famous examples include the whole tone scale, C D E F# G# A# C, the augmented scale, C D# E G Ab B, and what some jazz theory calls the "blues scale", C Eb F F# G Bb C.
..... Click the link for more information.
Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a twelve-bar structure. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants,
..... Click the link for more information.
Due to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to two very different musical modes or diatonic scales.

Greek Dorian mode

The Dorian mode is named after the Dorian Greeks.
..... Click the link for more information.
Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in and around New Orleans.

Overview

Jazz has been called "America's only original art form.
..... Click the link for more information.
For other uses of the same name, see .
In music, syncopation is a stress on a normally unstressed beat, or a missing beat where a stressed one would normally be expected.
..... Click the link for more information.
Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music[1] that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[2] With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, heavy,
..... Click the link for more information.
Alternate picking is a guitar playing technique, necessarily used only by pick users, that employs strictly alternating downward and upward picking strokes in a continuous run, and is the most common method of plectrum playing.
..... Click the link for more information.
Sweep picking is a technique used on the guitar in which a 'sweeping' motion of the pick is combined with a matching fret hand technique in order to produce a specific series of notes which are fast and fluid in sound.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter